PUBLIC BE DAMNED: Democratic State Assemblyman Jose Solorio and then-Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger shake hands after the latter signed AB 900, legislation which authorized the state to completely bypass the electorate and issue $7.7 billion in lease-revenue bonds to fund the addition of 53,000 new prison and jail beds to California’s overbloated prison-industrial complex.

Any political scientist worth a hill of beans will tell you that what rests at the foundation of a capitalist democracy like the United States is an elaborate series of narratives-–most of them myths and outright lies, incidentally–-that are frequently invoked for the purposes of legitimizing the way wealth and power are distributed to members of society.

Promoting belief in these narratives is crucial in helping preserve the status quo because they bamboozle people into thinking they live in a democracy, when in reality, all the important decisions affecting their lives are made behind closed doors by a tiny handful of multi-millionaires and billionaires and their well-paid lackeys in business and government.

In addition to this, they serve the purpose of sowing confusion amongst the “rabble,” making them believe, for example, the Democratic party is a friend of the poor and downtrodden, despite overwhelming historical evidence that politicians linked to this body have traditionally been the lapdogs of Wall Street bankers, not Main Street barbers.

As a case in point, during his first six months as Governor, Jerry Brown, a so-called “liberal Democrat,” has been far more successful at dismantling California’s meager social welfare state than every Republican party politician who has occupied that seat since a mediocre B-grade movie actor by the name of Ronald Wilson Reagan was elected in 1966.

Another narrative-–one repeatedly drilled into the heads of schoolchildren everywhere–-is the comical myth that politicians are humble servants who get elected to public office to serve the “will of the people” whose needs, as the story goes, are supposedly paramount to everybody else, including the “special interests” who bankroll their campaigns.

The USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll found “California voters oppose increasing taxes to pay for new prison construction …. About 73 percent of voters oppose increasing taxes to build new prisons or relocate prisoners–including a majority of self-identified Democratic, Independent and Republican voters–compared to 23 percent of voters in favor.”

According to Linda DiVall, president of American Viewpoint, a Republican-linked firm that participated in the polling:

In these tough economic times, voters expect their politicians to make spending priorities just like their families do, and right now, spending more money on prisons is not a high priority for Californians. When it comes to prisons, voters are looking for solutions that don’t raise taxes or take money from other priorities like education.

But what The Times neglects to mention, however, is the electorate not only has been sour on the state’s 20-year prison-building spree for quite some time now, but they’ve already been hoodwinked by former Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and his allies in the Democratic-controlled state legislature, both of whom approved of AB 900in 2007.

AB 900, authored by Jose Solorio, a Democratic State Assemblyman from Santa Ana with a lengthy legislative track record of being a waterboy for cop unions, was a measure which authorized the state to issue $7.7 billion in lease-revenue bonds to fund the addition of 53,000 new prison and jail beds to California’s vast archipelago of incarceration.

What’s important about AB 900, which critics have labeled “the largest single prison building project in the history of the world,” was it was written purposefully to circumvent the “will of the people” who previously defeated two propositions placed on the ballot by the state legislature to use money from general obligation bonds to pay for more prisons.

It is, of course, doubtful the USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll will have much of an impact upon Governor Brown or the Democratic-controlled state legislature as there are many vested interests–like construction companies–who have a stake in ensuring California continues to pour neverending amounts of funds down the prison-industrial complex rat hole.

Regrettably, this prison-building spree mambo will most likely continue into the indefinite future until people begin to wake up and realize marking an “X” next to a candidate with a “D” or “R” as their party affiliation at the ballot box not only serves to perpetuate this insanity, but legitimizes a bankrupt system rigged to ensure the few can continue robbing the many.

About Duane Roberts

6 Comments

Thanks for an excellent article, Duane. I’ll post a link to it on Twitter.

Of course it isn’t “marking an ‘X’ next to a candidate with a ‘D’ or ‘R’ as their party affiliation at the ballot box” that’s the problem. The problem is voting, even if you vote for a third party or independent candidate or cast a blank protest ballot. The monied interests have bankrolled enough candidates to have a consistent majority against which a minority would continue to be impotent.

The problem is voting. When we vote, we are granting our consent of the governed. Not our consent to be governed by who we vote for, but our consent to be governed by whoever has the majority votes in the legislature, and that will always be representatives of the monied interests.

No matter who or what we vote for, these powerful interests will always find ways to legislate an agenda that benefits them instead of their constituents.

The only real way out is to boycott elections. If the usual 30% to 55% stop voting, the monied interests will find themselves without the consent of the governed and without the legitimacy to pursue their selfish interests. Not that they won’t try anyway, but it would be clear to everyone that we did not consent.

Until we understand that our vote is our consent, not our consent to what we vote for, but also our consent to whatever the legislators do behind our backs, they can continue to get away with whatever they want, with our consent.

We can, of course, attempt to recall politicians who betray us, or to elect new ones once their terms are up. But by then the damage is already done and cannot easily be undone, and they may have already indebted us, our children, and our grandchildren for amounts that can never be repaid.

Electing a majority of good people at the local level can appear to be effective, at least until the state and federal levels of government find ways to defund or thwart them.

Why are we spending more money on prisons than on education? Because we voted to delegate our power to people who we can’t hold accountable until after they’ve made those decisions. We the people are much better at making budget decisions than our legislators. We should be allowed to vote directly on such decisions and no fiscal decisions whatsoever should be allowed without a direct vote of the people. To vote for others to make our fiscal decisions for us is to declare ourselves incompetent and appoint guardians to manage our affairs. And then we wonder why these guardians betray us again and again.

Brilliant writing. I believe the WHOLE WORLD should read this article. There are so many “choice” phrases, but I especially like “Brown will leave public office with a legacy of being known as the ‘Great Incarcerator'”…. and “Solorio…a waterboy for copy unions.” I highly recommend everyone “like” this facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/LiberalsToRecallJerryBrown

Great article. One of the most dispiriting things to me about our “two-party system” in California has always been the stranglehold the prison-industrial complex has on politicians of both parties – including many (most?) but not ALL Democrats.

I disagree with these prescriptions to just not vote, then we’ll be more fucked over than ever. Most people already don’t vote. It’s just that caring informed citizens always have to remember that voting is the bare minimum of what they should do. We need to look for candidates that will stand up to special interests like the prison guards, and then once they’re in office we have to keep our eyes on them and make sure they keep standing up to them. We need initiatives, we need lawsuits, we need loud protests, we need a watchdog press and blogosphere, and we need constant education of our fellow citizens such as this article provides.

One quibble, I’ve never heard anybody intelligent call Jerry Brown a “liberal.” Or Jose Solorio either. When Jose’s termed out I hope we can replace him with a real progressive who cares about liberty, justice, and saving money. And when Jerry shuffles off, either Kamala or Gavin will be a step in the right direction. But even these people need to be pushed every day to do the right thing.

Excellent piece Duane. The prison guards join with other law enforcement labor unions to form one voting bloc and to fund it so that they can elect their puppets to office. Organized labor shouldn’t support law enforcement who is more of a mafia-like organization that a labor unions. Cutting education and human services while giving prison guards hundreds of millions of raises? That does not serve the citizens of California. Brown will serve law enforcement for as long as we allow him to sit in power. We can do better than Jerry Brown. There are many forward-thinking men and women who would make a far better Governor, but it is up to us to set up the voting machine and fund it so that we can do better, not go backwards. A recall is an excellent investment in view of this $7 billion of new prison building to expand a broken, corrupt system.

Back when this legislation was being introduced I became concerned about what the impact would be on California. Several of us collected everything we could and compiled it together.We knew Jose Solario had nothing to do with authoring this bill, in fact by his own admission he knew almost nothing about prisons or funding. It was rumored that Arnold and then Speak Fabian Nunez were the true authors. But it was still poorly written and needed several fixes.

ABX 314 was one of those that changed the language from Prisons to state facilities, giving the state more flexibility to use the money to combat a take over by the three judge panel in Plata v. Schwarzenegger. The state had trouble selling the bonds and sold only 758 million in the beginning. Much which was used for planing for community corrections facilities that most likely will never be built which cost the state almost 350 million. Also to convert two former juvenile facilities to adult facilities adding two new prisons to the 33 existing prison.

This is a big coup for the CCPOA who had been concerned about lay offs. The state will build two new medical facilities that will also employ hundreds of CCPOA members. The long term cost of this bill will be about 15 billion and offer taxpayers no increase to public safety and was so poorly planned, billions will have gone to waste. Only a small group with a vested interest will benefit.Only two legislators actually read this piece of junk which was not available to read on the floor and those two one Republican and one Democrat voted no!

Yes if you oppose the wishes of the Prison Guards union and/ or the DA’s across the State, then forget about getting elected or re-elected to state office in California.

In most districts they can swing enough votes in the primary or the general to make sure thier opponents lose.

To much money is being made by those who profit from our prison system, they are together more powerful that all the other unions, big businesses and special interests combined. They are well organized and know how to pit different groups agains each other to make sure the outcome is what they want.

Without serious campaign finance reform, which is now almost impossible since the Supremes decided that recent case, I really do not see this situation changing much in the near future.